Ernest Bowley was born at Newington, South London, on 24 November 1891, the youngest of four children of Henry (Harry) Bowley, a bootmaker, and his wife Charlotte (née Frampton).

He joined the Royal Navy (HMS IMPREGNABLE) as a Boy 2nd Class on 14 October 1907, giving his previous occupation as ‘junior clerk’.  After  short periods in the cruisers HMS CRESSY and HMS CHARYBDIS, he joined the armoured cruiser HMS NATAL in February 1909, and was rated Ordinary Seaman on his 18th birthday. The second half of 1910 was spent in the reserve cruiser HMS ENDYMION.  He then joined the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS TRIUMPH where he was rated Able Seaman in April 1911. The 1911 census records him in HMS TRIUMPH at Malta. From June 1912 to December 1913 he was on the books of HMS HECLA, depot ship for the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla based at Portland.  This was followed by five months in HMS DIDO, another destroyer depot ship, and then HMS TYNE, a patrol boat depot ship.  In November 1914 he qualified as a Torpedoman and joined the light cruiser HMS UNDAUNTED.

He was drafted to the submarine depot ship HMS DOLPHIN in August 1915.  In December that year he moved to HMS TITANIA, newly commissioned depot ship for the newly formed Eleventh Submarine Flotilla, based at Blyth, Northumberland. It seems likely that he would have joined HMS E30 at this time since she was commissioned in November 1915.  In September 1916, HMS E30 transferred to the re-formed Ninth Submarine Flotilla, becoming part of the Harwich Force.

Ernest Bowley was one of six Able Seamen among the 30-man crew of HMS E30 when it was lost in the North Sea on 22 November 1916.  It is believed to have entered a previously unknown minefield off Orford Ness, Suffolk.  There were no survivors.

He left a widow, Elsie E (née Norman) whom he had married in 1915Q4, and a son, William Ernest E who was born in 1916Q3.

He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.